Getting away

Lacey and I took the weekend off. From parenting, that is. Saturday was a milestone birthday for Lacey, and we celebrated in style. We dropped Madeline off with Grandma and Grandpa England for the weekend and headed for the posh Tides Inn resort in Irvington. The Tides is only about 30 minutes from the Englands' house, so we were close enough in case we were needed.

While Lacey and I were getting custom treatments at the resort spa, swimming in the pool overlooking Carters Creek or dining on crab meat, Madeline was enjoying the afternoon and evening with her grandparents and Aunt Hannah. We hear things went pretty smoothly for them.

This was our first night without Madeline since she was born almost six months ago. We didn't have too much trouble with the separation, although we sometimes were curious how things were going. I was pleasantly surprised that Lacey and I were able to refocus and not spend the entire time talking or thinking about the baby. We had fun adult conversations and enjoyed a carefree, mostly unscripted weekend.

Madeline didn't seem to have too much trouble without us, either. Her sleeping schedule was thrown off a bit, likely because of the change in surroundings and the different people. But she still slept through the night on Saturday and was otherwise an "angel," according to Lacey's mom.

Also this weekend:

Madeline had her first taste of "real" food tonight when we gave her some squash with dinner. We've been giving her rice cereal for three weeks now and it's as if she's grown bored with it. From what I hear, the rice cereal doesn't taste like much - its purpose is to give her practice with solid food and not necessarily to enhance her palate. Madeline is still working on her mastication skills but she seemed to enjoy the squash, or at least wasn't wholly offended by it.